The Yank’s Guide To Serie A: Preview Edition

byThe YankonApril 8, 2009

“Salve” (er, hello) Italian soccer fans!

My name is Randall, and I am an American, or what many people in the international community would refer to as a “Yank”. I am an ardent fan of the world’s most beautiful game, soccer (or what Italians would refer to as “calcio”, which translates in English as “kick”), and I plan to introduce you SATO readers to Italy’s top league, Serie A.

Serie A is the top flight of Italian soccer and it is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Because Italy has been one of the traditional world soccer powerhouses, Serie A has been one of the most competitive leagues on Earth and has featured many legendary teams and players. In fact, one could argue it is actually the best league in the world.

After all, more Italian clubs have reached the European Cup/Champions League Final than any other country’s squads. In fact, Italian sides have hoisted that prestigious trophy a whopping eleven times. Moreover, more Serie A players have won the Ballon d’Or (European Player of the Year Award) than any other top league’s players.

Serie A has featured 20 teams since 2004, and some of those squads are reputed to be the best club teams in the world. Over the course of a 38 game season (each team plays the 19 others in a round robin format), some teams become legendary and move on to European competitions, while three teams are relegated down to Serie B.

Over the next two weeks, I will be telling you about each of the 20 clubs currently in Serie A in order to introduce you to the Italian league. For each squad, I will explain a little about their history, their current results, and their wise managers. I will also compare each club to a current US sports team so you can understand their history.

Hopefully, you will learn more about Serie A from my guide and have a good time doing so. Please come back to SATO over the next 14 days to learn about Italy’s top twenty club teams, and please let me know what you think about my brief synopsis of each team in the comments section below. Until then, I will just say “ciao!”